Designing a Robot Through Prototyping in the Wild

Team: Selma Šabanović | Sarah Reeder | Bobak Kechavarzi | Zachary Schall-Zimmerman

A second iteration of the Breakbot study, this research project to build and test a prototype we call "Dewey" compares participant reactions to an embodied and online version of a break-reminder robot. The project was presented as a Late Breaking Report at HRI2011 by Dr. Šabanović.

Breakbot: A social motivator for the workplace

Team: Sarah Reeder | Lorelei Kelly | Bobak Kechavarzi | Selma Šabanović

This team project for Dr. Šabanović's Human Robot Interaction class resulted in a short paper I had the honor of presenting at the Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference in Aarhus, Denmark in August 2010.

Breakbot short paper [ACM digital library]

StoryTime

Team: Lorelei Kelly | Susan Coleman Morse | Sarah Reeder | Xuan Wang

Our video submission of StoryTime won our team second place in the online portion of the OZCHI 2009 24-hour student design competition. The theme of the competition was "Find Yourself in Melbourne," and the challenge was to design the future of maps and situate the design in Melbourne, Australia. StoryTime is a story-sharing system that allows for place-based stories to be recorded and shared in context. StoryTime Poster [PDF] | StoryTime short paper [ACM digital library]

Playing in Traffic

Team: Lorelei Kelly | Xiaohan Liu| Dane Petersen | Sarah Reeder

Designed for the Bloomington Entertainment and Art District (BEAD), Playing in Traffic is a set of design concepts ranging from ludic to currently plausible, which aim to increase awareness and engagement with the themed districts by utilizing the existing public bus transportation system. The different concepts address digital wayshowing at various stages of trip taking, from planing to embarking to navigating the return. Playing in Traffic presentation [PDF]

Light Loom

Team: Tim Bowman | Jasleen Kaur | Xiaohan Liu | Sarah Reeder | Xuan Wang

Light Loom: weaving the threads of design was a presentation designed to translate design theories learned in class and apply them to a practical setting. Our group chose a theoretical audience of educational game designers, and pitched our interpretations for that particular practice.

NightLight!

Team: Rachel Bolton | Sarah Reeder | Joe Wilkerson

NightLight is a design for an accessible, interactive museum installation. Using decorative lights and black felt to simulate the night sky, the exhibit would allow visitors to change the intensity and color of the ambient light to observe the affect of light pollution on nighttime visibility. We present the design and the design process in an 8 minute video.

Image credit: Ben Serrette

JADE: Gardening for Community

Team: Sarah Reeder | James Schmittler | Ben Serrette | Xuan Wang | Yuebo Wang

Gardening for Community was inspired by the CHI 2009 student design competition theme, which was to design to encourage use of local resources and in a sustainable manner. Our design is a plant pot that glows to alert members of a community garden when there is activity in the garden. The ambient technology would utilize a Twitter feed to help the community of people who care for the garden to grow together.

Barbie Goes to China

Team: Sarah Reeder | James Schmittler | Xuan Wang | Yuebo Wang

During this 2-day class exercise, I gained hands-on experience assembling a cultural probe. We conducted a literature review and interview to help us create an age appropriate and culturally sensitive package designed to gather insight into the likes and dislikes of Chinese girls, which could then be used to inform the launch of the Mattel Barbie product line in China. The items we assembled were fun, easy to use, and kid-friendly. Instructions to complete the carefully chosen tasks were written in Mandarin Chinese.